Angus King: Court check for drone strikes on Americans

2/10/13 9:38 AM EST

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) says he agrees with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that there should be a legal check on a president’s ability to kill Americans abroad.

King said terrorists are identified “for weeks” in advance of a targeted killing, plenty of time for the executive branch to clear a killing with a court before authorizing drone strikes.

“It just makes me uncomfortable that the president, whoever it is, is the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner, all rolled into one,” King said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union. “So I’m not suggesting something that would slow down response. But where there is time to submit it to a third party, a court, in confidence, and get a judgment that, yes, there’s sufficient evidence, that feels to me like that’s, its not full compliance with the Fifth Amendment … but some independent check on our executive is healthy for the system.”